Hi all, I'm in the market for a new PC and need the capability to create virtual machines as I have to use Windows for my job. I have two questions. 1) Do I make Linux or Windows the host ? And 2) What sort of spec PC do I need to create VM's ( completely new to all things virtual )

As for the spec's: depending on other requirements, any PC with >2 GHz clock speed and 3 GB RAM will run a Win-OS guest. However, mind that Vi$ta requires a minimum of 2 GB RAM to work, so the more RAM you put in, the better it'll perform, for M$ standards of course

FYI: my 'normal' supplier of PC components also has "upgrade kits". One has an Asus mainboard (FM1 socket), a top-end (-ish) AMD proc and 8 GB RAM (1333, IIRC) for under 200 Euro. Add enclosure, PSU (if not included in enclosure) and harddrive and basically, you'd be done for under 350 Euro.

As for the spec's: depending on other requirements, any PC with >2 GHz clock speed and 3 GB RAM will run a Win-OS guest. However, mind that Vi$ta requires a minimum of 2 GB RAM to work, so the more RAM you put in, the better it'll perform, for M$ standards of course

FYI: my 'normal' supplier of PC components also has "upgrade kits". One has an Asus mainboard (FM1 socket), a top-end (-ish) AMD proc and 8 GB RAM (1333, IIRC) for under 200 Euro. Add enclosure, PSU (if not included in enclosure) and harddrive and basically, you'd be done for under 350 Euro.

Sorry my bad, I meant laptop not desktop, thanks for the spec though at least I know now

Using Linux as the host has the advantage that you can run multiple instances of the same windows license (just not at the same time) for testing purposes, as the virtual and actual hardware remain the same.
I do this to maintain a software demo suite for incompatible applications.

The sig between the asterisks is so cool that only REALLY COOL people can even see it!

wyliecoyoteuk wrote:Using Linux as the host has the advantage that you can run multiple instances of the same windows license (just not at the same time) for testing purposes, as the virtual and actual hardware remain the same.I do this to maintain a software demo suite for incompatible applications.

Hi, thanks for your help, I can see I need to read some more on VM's - will Google for a tutorial.

Yeah, make a windows VM, activate and then clone it.
Because the hard disk, processor, gfx, and network card MAC address remain the same, it is effectively the same PC.
Just don't try to run more than one copy at a time.

The sig between the asterisks is so cool that only REALLY COOL people can even see it!

Only problem with dual boot is that you can only access one OS at a time.
Most modern PCs can easily support 2 or more OSes in VMs.
I have a 4 core AMD processor with 8Gb of memory, and it can happily run several VMs simultaneously.
My dual core 4 GB laptop can run 2 without a problem.

The sig between the asterisks is so cool that only REALLY COOL people can even see it!

wyliecoyoteuk wrote:Only problem with dual boot is that you can only access one OS at a time.Most modern PCs can easily support 2 or more OSes in VMs.I have a 4 core AMD processor with 8Gb of memory, and it can happily run several VMs simultaneously.My dual core 4 GB laptop can run 2 without a problem.

Hi there, what laptop do you have ? I need to be able to run Visual Studio 2008 on the windows side of things and Fedora as my main OS. Thanks for your help.